Davis Strait

The strait separates the depths of Baffin Bay (north) from those of the Labrador Sea (south) and forms part of the Northwest Passage, a route through the Canadian Arctic Archipelago linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. It is approximately 400 miles (650 km) north to south and 200 to 400 miles wide. Along the shore of Greenland, the West Greenland Current carries relatively warm water northward, while the cold Labrador Current transports masses of ice southward along Baffin Island’s eastern shore into the Labrador Sea and the Atlantic. Icebergs are discharged into the waters by glacial action from the vast interior Greenland Ice Sheet. The Baffin Island coast has few permanent settlements because the main shipping routes are in the warmer waters near the Greenland coast. The navigation season for the principal Greenland ports (including Paamiut, Nuuk, and Sisimiut) extends from midsummer to late fall but with great annual variations.

The strait is named for John Davis, an English navigator who explored the region over three voyages (1585–87) that were undertaken in an effort to establish a northern sea route to the Pacific. A successful sea transit of the Northwest Passage did not occur until 1906, but Davis’s voyages did much to inform later expeditions, such as those launched by William Baffin and Henry Hudson.

Inuit fishermen had long plied the shallow waters of the strait for Arctic char or marine mammals, and American and European whalers hunted the highly sought bowhead whale there into the 19th century. Widespread commercial development of the area did not take hold, however, until the late 20th century. Deep-sea trawlers exploited the rich fisheries that extended from the Davis Strait into Baffin Bay, where valuable turbot, shrimp, and crabs were found. Declining stocks and the threat of overfishing led both Canada and Greenland to more closely regulate fishing in the area, and environmental groups worked to preserve the deepwater coral communities that were sometimes damaged by trawling nets. Deep-sea oil exploration in the strait began in earnest in the 21st century, but a series of dry wells, as well as heightened environmental concerns in the wake of the Deepwater Horizon spill of 2010, dampened excitement about its prospects. Tourism was a growing industry in the region, and cruise ships carried passengers through the strait to destinations such as Nuuk, the capital of Greenland, and an assortment of coastal Inuit communities.